Monday, January 24, 2011

In the duldroms of winter, there is only one thing that works better than Vitamin D for keeping my spirits up: watching my children dance around the floor. No matter what mood I'm in, they always will brighten my day when they start moving and grooving! Who can't hold in a smile when they see an innocent child's total abandonment to rhythm? Even the Mother of God was distracted by the sight of children dancing at one of her visits to Kibeho. This piece taken from Our Lady of Kibeho may seem a little off color to some who may think that holiness means "other worldly". Being a saint doesn't make a person barely human- it make them fully human- the way God intended us to be. (I paraphrased the parts that are not in quotations)

During one of Marie Claire's visions of Our Lady, she asks Mary why she is not looking at her. Her response: "My Child, I am sorry. I was distracted watching all my lovely children who are dancing and singing so beautifully to me. I love when my children play with me so innocently. Marie Claire asks if she can see what her classmates are doing. "I instantly saw my schoolmates dancing and singing in front of me and and that the Blessed Mother had joined them. They couldn't see her, but she was indeed standing in the middle of the singing girls, smiling at them warmly and holding her hands out to them, accepting their gift of music and dance. She was very, very, happy"

One of our daily home school routines is to dance and sing and play instruments to the songs from Making Music Praying Twice, available here. This effortless music program is by far the best homeschooling purchase I have made. My kids agree whole heartily! See for yourself:

God is smiling and so am I! joyfully. dancing. boy.

Analee loves to jump. The two foot jump is a *must* for more up-beat songs.

"The bell" is Analee's 'go to' move for all the slow songs. Ding dong!

Liam's pure abandonment with the streamers.

One of the best things about the CD is the variety of music. For one, there are five different CD's that coincide with the different parts the liturgical year. Gotta love a CD that enforces Catholic seasons! There are songs for prayer, classical music with a twist, folk music from around the world, and a few traditional nursery rhyme songs. For the most part, I don't mind these songs getting stuck in my head all day- which says A LOT for a kid's CD.

The CD's are supposed to teach a variety of music skills when used in the right way. I can't say we go through the instructional method very well because the kids just love to run around and dance too much! Oh well, even if they don't always sing along to music, I know they are learning the songs because they will sing them long after the CD is done.

This program would be great even for families who don't home school. Just putting the CD in and listening to the prayerful and fun songs make for one very happy hour.

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

After reading "The First Christmas Gifts" from The Catholic Children's Treasure Box, the four year olds at co-op got to bejewel their very own crown. They all wanted to give Baby Jesus their very own gift of love.

The crowns are made of felt and loosely based on a pattern that I found here....